Like many people, I suspect, I am saddened to see the unannounced demise of the WordPress weekly photo challenge. In the early days of salamancastreets the weekly prompts from the WordPress team often offered a much needed spur to action, created a platform and built a community.

The WordPress team, and their occasional guests, created a cherished sense of community. They will be missed.

How to choose a favourite? Not exactly Sophie’s Choice I know, but hey guys, you may be ripping out the soul from your blogging platform. Why not at least have issued some kind of warning, canvassed opinion, or even sought out those willing to carry the torch?

“Look at the rain long enough, with no thoughts in your head, and you gradually feel your body falling loose, shaking free of the world of reality. Rain has the power to hypnotize.”
― Haruki Murakami, South of the Border, West of the Sun

We often spend time wondering who, where, or perhaps what we are.

What we’d rather be.

Maybe, our lives would be better if we simply accepted who we are, where we are.

And what we have.

Let the rain wash over us, cleanse us.

Make us whole again.

And maybe then, we’d rather not need to be anything that we are not.

Already.

A thoughtful piece for this week’s WordPress Weekly Photo challenge which posed the rhetorical question ‘I’d rather be’

And, in an odd way, the fact that each of these shots was captured, in Salamanca’s Plaza Mayor, with a 35 year old Olympus OM 10 with a battered Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 lens and a fresh roll of Ilford XP2 Super ISO400, and posted here edit free, says something about where I’d rather be too.

I tell you, money can’t build your spire for you. Build it of gold and it would simply sink deeper
― William Golding, The Spire

It’s been a while since I have posted on any of my blogs, for many reasons.

This shot was taken with my Nikon D700 and Nikkor 70-200mm f/4 lens (at 175mm,ISO200, f/9 and 1/80s). I was leaning precariously out of a window at the time and the lens was unsupported other than by my less than steady hand. Given that, I was quite happy with the result of the shot with only modest tweaking in Lightroom CC.